Bonasera, Bonasera, what have I ever done to make you treat me so disrespectfully? —Don Corleone Short answer: Gelato means ice cream in Italian. Longer answer: Italians are passionate about food—and about knowing what’s authentically Italian, and about the one true God-given way to cook something or name something. This is especially true for Italian food lovers, and …
If you’ve studied ice cream making, you’ve probably been told to pay attention to drawing temperature—the final temperature of the ice cream before you remove it from the machine. This marks the end of dynamic freezing, and the transition to an even colder environment (blast chiller, hardening cabinet, chest freezer, or regular kitchen freezer) for static freezing—also known as hardening. …
I made another batch with the recipe from the last post, this time with Michel Cluizel Plantation Los Anconès chocolate, along with the Cluizel cocoa powder. This was an intense trip. I’ve always loved this chocolate, but never knew quite what to do with it, besides, of course, just eating it. It has an unusual and intense flavor profile, full …
Welcome to our second deep-dive into flavor. I’ve had more requests for chocolate than for all others put together, and I’m not surprised. Who doesn’t love it? And who hasn’t had problems with it? Chocolate’s up there with coffee when it comes to technical challenges, but it presents its own unique vexations. Chocolate also resembles coffee in that …
Farmland in Banga, Burundi. Photo by Christine Vaufrey. From dailycoffeenews.com The coffee ice cream method described in the previous post has been so successful at preserving the origin character of coffee that it’s turned into a minor fetish. I can’t stop making batches with different coffees, and eating them, which is getting me into some trouble with my girlfriend, …
[Edited 9-17-2020 to adjust ice cream cooking time/temperature] Welcome to the first post that focusses on a single flavor. We’re starting with coffee, not because it’s simple—it’s maybe the most complex flavor we’ll have the pleasure of disecting. We’re going to take on this complexity because coffee flavor illustrates so many principles, and because there’s a mountain of high …
Easier… Earlier in this blog series I suggested that good texture was easier for industrial ice cream manufacturers, but that good flavor was easier for the home or pastry cook. This is because some of the tools that promote the finest texture—high-pressure homogenizers, high-end ice cream and gelato machines that can freeze the mix in mere minutes, blast …
Scanning electron micrograph of ice crystals This post is addendum to the post on How To Build a Recipe, and the post on Sugars. I want to clarify the importance of solids—which is really a reflection of the importance of water. These are key ideas—if you master them, you will be well on your way to texture Ninjahood. …
[Updated 4-12-2025] The holidays are upon us—good cheer, warm cockles, and dining while captive audience to your white supremacist uncle. I’m not promising boozy ice cream will take the edge off. But it can’t hurt. Spirit flavors are well trodden territory. If you can find it in a bottle, or make it in a still out back, someone’s …
Electron micrograph of a milk fat globule. Here’s where the action is. [Updated 2-1-2023] This has so far been the most challenging post to research and write; there’s a lot of arcane and incomplete knowledge on the topic, much of it of questionable relevance to the mission of artisanal ice cream making. If you favor recipes …
